Everyone needs to go to 4kids.tv right now! Just out of curiosity, I checked that site to see where the TMNT were ranking in the favorite show thingy they're doin' right now, AND IT'S AT THE VERY BOTTOM! That ain't right! It's losing to some of the stupidest shows right now! What the # is going on!

Well, I guess that's why I'm in anger management. But I'm seriously going on the net every chance I get to try and change the standings. Maybe the poll is rigged or something…

Anyways, on the brighter side, Shredder is gone! Yay! (dances around) He is gone and he ain't comin' back! However, I do believe we'll be seeing Karai again. I hope to see Dr. Chaplan again, too. I thought he was funny! I loved his 'I think it's really cool that you're really a squishy, alien blob' comment. That was great! And it's going to be interesting to see how Stockman and Bishop's partnership works out.

You guys should've seen me during that episode! I think that was one of the most graphic episodes I ever saw. I mean (sorry if I spoil the episode for anyone), they sent who-knows-how-many bolts of electricity through Master Splinter (Me: oo), they had a very accurate showing of Mikey getting his knee dislocated (Me: o.o), but more importantly, Leo actually got stabbed (Me: 0.0) (Me at commercial break: "Damn commercials!")!

Did I ramble enough? Okay, here we go!

Disclaimer: I don't own the TMNT, but I'm trying to find a way to make the talented Eastman and Laird to consider co-ownership sometime soon.

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Ten minutes had gone by. Sil figured that that would be good enough. Ever so quietly, she walked back to Leo's room, her feet padding softly against the ground beneath her.

She took the long way so she wouldn't have to pass Raph's room. The turtle may have fallen for her excuse the first time around, but he wasn't dumb. He'd figure out that she was hiding something sooner or later.

Unfortunately, that meant that he'd be on her case. But that was something she and Leo would have to deal with. Sil knew that Leo, as much as he wanted to, couldn't keep this from his family forever. But, because he insisted on hiding these things from them, she decided to prolong it, just a little longer.

In truth, Raphael probably would've found out about Leo's nightmares tonight if Silhouette hadn't interfered. Luckily, she'd been awake when the dreams began again and was able to distract Raph's attention away from Leo's room.

Sil walked into the room. Leo was still in the middle of a nightmare. That worried her. It seemed that every night, these dreams would get longer; each time causing even worse damage to Leo's health.

For starters, he was increasingly irritable and hypersensitive to noise, especially anything that resembled a scream. Sleeping in later was helping, but it only delayed the reactions.

It was also effecting his physical well being. Last night, his temperature had dropped so dangerously low that his heart rate dropped to only eight beats a minute. Sil had almost gotten up and told his brothers right there and then and she was still unsure why she hadn't.

The thought made her aware of the present situation. Sitting on the floor, she checked his temperature and pulse. That was hard to do when he went transparent every now and again, making it difficult to touch him, but she managed.

No where near as bad as last night.

Leo winced. It wasn't an unusual occurrence. She didn't have to hear them to know those kids in the dreams could scream pretty loud; their voices filled with agony.

She herself had screamed like that once. When her mother and brother died, it was hard not to. Sil told Leo about them two days ago, but it wasn't anywhere near as heart wrenching as it had been tonight.

When she had told Leo, they were alone. With Raph, Mikey, and Don, she'd been in front of that gun movie.

Sniffling, Sil put her head on the floor, not bothering to climb into bed. There was something she'd left out of both explanations.

With that thought, she turned her head and cried.

&&&&&

They were louder tonight. They'd been calling to him even in the day, but not because they had something to say. No, it was because their connection was getting stronger.

Last night, Leo had tried looking around for another child, unable to find anything but a hypothermic chill to his body that could have killed him in the real world.

A cry rose above the others. Gritting his teeth, Leo realized Stockman had found another child.

While he was there, he tried to concentrate on something else. His mind would drift towards the puzzle Tom had laid out for him, but he could never get far in it. Every few seconds, a screamer would interrupt, and then another, and another, until he could barely remember who he was, much less anybody else.

Then, the water would resemble blood, then turn back again. Always clinging to his body like a leech. That is, until-

He woke up. For a few moments, he was disoriented as scenes from his room filled his vision, even when the darkness lingered.

Leo didn't know how long it took him to realize that the screams had stopped when his hearing kicked back in.

"Eww…" He could hear Sil moan next to him. With a groan, he turned, lifting his head to see her, although his muscles protested. One side of her shirt and pant legs were covered in the 'water'.

The little girl fixed him with a death glare. "I'm getting really tired of this stuff! Do you know how hard it is to clean up?"

Leo sighed and put his head back down against the ground. It felt too heavy to hold up. "Try sitting up to your knees in it."

Sil began wringing it out of her shirt. "Get anything?"

"No. Just a headache."

"You always have a headache."

The blue-clad turtle smiled slightly, just to reassure her. "What time is it?"

"Uh! What is it with you and the time?"

Leo said nothing, just stared at her.

"Fine." She got up to look at his alarm clock, while muttering under her breath, "You could be on your death bed and you'd still be wondering what time it was."

&&&&&

Donny shook his head when he saw what Mike had prepared for breakfast. On the orange-clad turtle's plate, there was one slice of lemon-meringue pie, a chicken leg, and a Butterfinger.

As much as he was tempted to say something, Don quickly changed his mind. Unless he told Mikey that those food items carried a deadly virus, he'd still eat them.

A voice sounded from behind him. "So how're the samples looking? Any matches?"

He turned sharply to see Silhouette. He smiled. "Well, actually, there was one-"

"From where?"

Don lifted the petry dish slowly, showing it to her before putting it with the others. Sil was just a little too eager over this science project. "I don't know. I must've forgotten to label it."

"Oh."

Mikey was with them now. "Hey, dude!" he called cheerfully to Donny. "Want me to make you breakfast?"

The purple-banded ninja took another look at Michaelangelo's plate. "Um, no, that's okay, Mikey."

When he turned back around, Sil was gone. "Ya know," Mikey started, "she's a pretty bright kid."

Don rolled his eyes. "No, really?" he said sarcastically, turning back to his work.

Mike's eyes narrowed, but he kept his grin. "Yes, really. After all, I'm not the one who just let a twelve-year-old run off with my little germy, scientific junk, am I?"

"What?" Don raised an eye-ridge and turned to the water samples. The new one was missing, just as quickly as it had appeared the night before.

His younger brother's grin widened. "She ain't just a smart little girl, bro, she's a master thief!"

&&&&&

Sil slid the petry dish into her pocket, being careful to see that it didn't burst open. This was too important to wait for. She had to tell Leo now. Sure, now Don would be on her case too, but that might be a good thing.

She didn't want Leo hiding this from his family.

She was about to climb the stairs to wake him up when she heard a rough voice behind her. "Goin' to the bathroom, Sil?"

Turning, she saw Raph beside her. Great.

Raph watched her carefully. "What do you know about Leo?"

"All that he's told me." She started to walk up the stairs, but Raph jumped over her, blocking her passage.

"So what'd he tell ya?"

"Nothing that concerns you."

Sil tried to go around him, but he wouldn't let her. "Listen, Sil. If it means somethin' to my brother, it means somethin' to me, so you better start talkin'. If you can handle it, I definitely can."

"Oh, yes." She spat, sarcasm dripping off her voice. "I'm gonna tell you because your so much braver than I am and I'm just some pathetic little girl. It's a good thing you're the one interrogating me. If it had been anybody else, I would've fought to the death to protect this secret. But with you here, I guess I'll just have to spill it all. Good work, Raph."

With that, Sil, being so small, was able to crawl under his legs and began to run upstairs. She'd just gotten to the top when Raph caught up with her, keeping a firm grip on her shoulders this time.

He pushed her up against the wall, being careful not to hurt her at the same time. "Ya know what, Sil? That mouth of yours is gonna get you into some real deep shit one of these days."

"So I've been told."

"I mean it! Now I wanna know what's goin' on with Leo! Will ya just tell me already?"

Her death glare on, she smirked. "Nope."

Raph growled and leaned in closer to her. "Why is it he could tell you but not me?"

She in turn inched her face closer to Raph's. "Mainly, it's because I had something worth the information, but, I suppose it could be that he trusts me more than he'll ever trust you."

Oops. Everyone was right. Her mouth would get her in trouble someday. Raph's temper had reached its final straw. He pulled his arm back and formed a fist, bringing it closer to her face.

Fortunately for her, he was able to stop himself long before it made contact.

Unfortunately, she still screamed.

&&&&&

As much as Raph liked this kid, she could got on his nerves quicker than Mikey sometimes. But this time, she took it too far.

All he wanted to know was what was bothering Leo. Was that too much to ask?

Luckily, he got control over himself before he hit her. But then, a funny thing happened when she screamed.

Not even a second after she had shrieked, Leo was out of his room, his skin pale and eyes tired but fearful. "What's going on?"

Sil turned her head. Her eyes widened when she saw him. "Omigod. I'm so sorry, Leo. I am so sorry." She moved towards him, stretching out a reassuring hand to him.

Leo didn't seem to be comforted by this. "It wasn't them." She soothed. "Just me. Everything's okay."

He looked up at Raph.

Raph had never seen so much fear in his brother's eyes.

"Raph had nothing to do with it, Leo." Sil spoke softly. "I-I just have something to show you." She looked at Raph, her eyes telling him to leave. Then she turned back to Leo. "Something important." Sil pulled on his arm, trying to get him back into his room.

He found it weird that Sil was diverting the blame away from Raph, since, just a few minutes ago, she'd been telling him how much of a idiot he was. But then his thoughts quickly drifted to what she'd just said.

Them? What is she talkin' about? And what's she got to show 'im? Raph was tempted to make either one of them tell him what was going on that instant, but Sil looked at him again. This time, her sparkling green eyes were begging him to go.

But that probably wouldn't stop him.

As if she knew this, Sil spoke back to him, "Raph, weren't you planning on helping Donny?"

No. I was planning on finding out what the shell you're doing. Then it hit him. Donny was on to this too, now. Sil was trying to keep Don from asking too.

The only reason why Raph complied was because of what happened next. When she was sure Leo couldn't see her, she mouthed four words.

I'll tell you later.

&&&&&

Leo had to admit, sleeping in had done him some good, though it wasn't enough to really help. Even when he was getting a decent rest, his mind would drift back to the dreams, though he wasn't in them.

He had calmed down a little, but he was still uneasy. Silhouette's scream, being from a child's mouth, was very similar to the children in his nightmares.

Sil sat down on his bed, Leo deciding to take the floor. "Okay," she began, obviously excited, "what do you know so far?"

She was purposely dragging this out, but he didn't mind. Yet. "Stockman has eighty- four children in his possession right now and is performing some sort of experiments on them. One of them is a boy named Tom, whose father is abusive, which made him seem homeless."

"What about your dreams?"

"They're always in a place where I can't see anything; in a place where there's a strange type of water that follows me when I wake up."

Sil smiled. Then, she reached into her pocket and pulled out a petry dish containing that same water. "Donny was examining some bacteria in the water around the East River, trying to see if any other water source contained it. I slipped this in with his other samples when he wasn't looking." Her grin broadened. "This was the only one that matched."

Leo's thoughts were racing. This meant they could find out where Stockman was hiding. This meant he could find out why they screamed.

"I checked out how many warehouses are close to the river," she broke through his thoughts, "and there's only about three or four. And they're all really close to where Tom was taken." She took in a deep breath. "I think this is it."

At this moment in time, Sil could've been his best friend. She, as smart-aleck as she was, was a genuinely caring person. They hadn't even known each other for a week, yet she was willing to help him. This girl was a rarity.

She was watching him, waiting for him to say something. But he couldn't, so he smiled.

&&&&&

It was almost six at night now. Mikey was still wondering what the heck was going on. Leo had told them a few hours ago that he'd be going out later on patrol. Of course, his brothers had insisted on coming too.

As strange as Leo had been acting lately, they were worried.

They were just getting ready to leave when Sil came out. "Wait! I wanna come, too!"

"No." Leo wasted no time telling her she wasn't coming. "I don't want you getting hurt."

"Hey, I-"

"Sil," his voice had been fierce, but now he lowered it, "you know why I don't want you to come."

She didn't say anything after that, just scowled. Leo gave her a small smile of gratitude, which she returned with little enthusiasm, then he took off with Donny and Raph following.

Mikey stayed a second longer, waving to Sil. The kid was wearing a mask of mixed emotions. She looked mad, defiant, and abandoned all at the same time.

But most of all, she looked very worried.

As Mikey took off and caught up to his brothers, he couldn't help but wonder: What the heck are we getting into?

&&&&&

Long enough for ya? I hope so.

Umm… I really hope you stay tuned to the next chapter. It's gonna be very important and, well, very… interesting.

I'll try to get it up as soon as I can, but I also need to type up the next chapter of Suicide, the long due chapter of More, plus I have a new one-shot that (gasp) isn't a tragedy!

Please review! Thank you!